Thursday, September 01, 2005

Big sigh of relief and a colossal showdown

The Michael Finley sweepstakes are over and the winner is......NOT Miami! The Heat improved their offense firepower quite a bit with the additions of Antoine "are there two-pointers in basketball?" Walker and J-Wil. The addition of Finley would've been very bad news for the Pistons. Even as it stands now, the Heat upgraded their only weakness which was a lack of scoring outside of Shaq and Michael Jordan II. The Spurs getting Finley really doesn't make the Spurs any more imposing than they already were. They win because they play good, fundamental basketball and have the best post player this side of Neon Boudreau. The Pistons had no post presence with Shaq and Zo clogging the middle which pretty much stagnated the Detroit offense. As a result, Detroit's only recourse was to rely on Miami's offense troubles which luckily turned out to be worse than Detroit's. If Miami improves on offense, then the Pistons will have big-time issues beating Miami this year. Luckily, Finley won't be there.

For anyone who hasn't watched Sportscenter today, I strongly suggest doing so. Nationals manager Frank Robinson and umpire Jim Wolfe engaged in a monumental staredown. It lasted for an unprecedented 45 seconds. Robinson was in the dugout while Wolfe was behind the plate. The winner depends on what groundrules were used for this classic confrontation. Wolfe was the first to turn away after the marathon stare-off. So, it appeared that he lost. However, Robinson was blinking throughout the staredown. The umpire didn't blink once. As far as I'm concerned, Robinson should've been disqualified for blinking. Nonetheless, you can watch Sportscenter and judge for yourself.